Kentucky Vocational Rehabilitation and Pre-ETS: School-to-Work Services for Students with Disabilities

What OVR Does for Transition-Age Students

Kentucky's Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) is the state agency that helps people with disabilities find and keep employment. For students with IEPs, OVR offers two tiers of service: Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) starting at age 16, and full individualized vocational rehabilitation services that can begin before or after leaving school.

Pre-ETS is the entry point. Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), OVR must reserve 15% of its federal funding specifically for Pre-ETS — services delivered to students with disabilities while they're still in school. You don't need to be an OVR client to access Pre-ETS. Any student with a disability between ages 16 and 21 who has an IEP or 504 plan is potentially eligible.

The five core Pre-ETS categories are job exploration counseling, work-based learning experiences, counseling on postsecondary education options, workplace readiness training (soft skills like attendance, communication, and problem-solving), and self-advocacy instruction. In practice, these look like career interest inventories, internships and job shadowing arranged through the school, tours of postsecondary training programs, and structured lessons on workplace expectations.

The Community Work Transition Program

Kentucky delivers much of its Pre-ETS through the Community Work Transition Program (CWTP), a collaboration between OVR and local school districts. CWTP assigns a transition specialist to participating schools who works directly with students during their final years of high school.

The CWTP specialist conducts vocational assessments — comprehensive evaluations of a student's interests, aptitudes, functional capabilities, and support needs in a work environment. These assessments produce the Comprehensive Vocational Assessment (CVA) report, which becomes critical evidence in two places: the IEP transition plan (informing the ARC committee about what supports the student needs for employment) and the SSI disability determination (documenting functional work limitations for the DDS examiner).

CWTP also arranges community-based work experiences — paid or unpaid placements at local businesses where students practice real job tasks with coaching support. The outcomes from these placements are documented: did the student need continuous prompting, could they sustain attention for the required shifts, did they demonstrate the ability to follow multi-step instructions independently. These records serve as direct evidence of the student's capacity (or inability) to perform substantial gainful activity.

How to Get a Referral

The IEP team should formally refer the student to OVR at age 16, but many districts don't initiate this unless the family asks. Here's how to make it happen:

At the annual ARC meeting, request that an OVR representative be invited to the next meeting. Under IDEA transition requirements, the school must invite representatives from agencies likely to provide transition services — OVR qualifies. Put the request in writing to the ARC chairperson.

Alternatively, contact the OVR district office directly. Kentucky's OVR operates through 11 district offices across the state. Call the office serving your county and request an intake appointment for Pre-ETS or full vocational rehabilitation services. You'll need the student's IEP (or 504 plan), medical documentation of the disability, and contact information for the school's transition coordinator.

OVR must determine eligibility within 60 days of the application. Once eligible, OVR and the individual develop an Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) within 90 days. The IPE outlines the employment goal, the services OVR will provide, and the timeline.

Timing the OVR Connection With the 18th Birthday

Starting OVR services before the 18th birthday creates overlap that protects against the "services cliff" — the gap that opens when school services end and adult services haven't started. A student with an active OVR case and an IPE in place before graduation has a continuous service plan that extends beyond the school system.

The ideal sequence:

Age 16: Referral to OVR and enrollment in Pre-ETS through CWTP. Begin vocational assessments and community-based work experiences.

Age 17-18: Transition from Pre-ETS to full OVR services. Develop the IPE with specific employment goals and support services. The CWTP vocational assessment informs both the IPE and the SSI redetermination evidence package.

Age 18-21: While still enrolled in school under IDEA, the student participates in both school-based transition services and OVR-funded employment services. These run in parallel — OVR services don't replace school services, and the school can't stop providing transition services just because OVR is involved.

Post-graduation: OVR services continue under the IPE. The student has an established case, a vocational counselor, and active job supports in place before they lose the school system's safety net.

OVR and SSI: Documentation That Works for Both

The vocational evidence OVR produces serves double duty. The CVA from CWTP, the IPE, and the documented outcomes from community work experiences are exactly what the DDS examiner needs to evaluate work capacity at the age-18 redetermination.

If the OVR vocational assessment shows that the student requires continuous job coaching, cannot perform multi-step tasks without visual prompts, or cannot sustain work for a full shift without behavioral supports, that evidence directly supports a finding that the individual cannot engage in substantial gainful activity. Submit copies of all OVR and CWTP reports to the DDS examiner handling the SSI redetermination.

The Kentucky SSI at 18 & Adult Disability Benefits Guide includes an OVR coordination timeline that aligns Pre-ETS enrollment, CWTP assessments, and SSI evidence preparation into a single, sequenced plan.

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